Persuasion
by livingondaydreams
Summary: How Nico finally gets Percy to take on the curse of Achilles. Not slash. R&R


**A/N: How Nico finally gets Percy to agree to the Styx plan. (Because I have a hard time believing he would let it hang until five days before Percy's sweet 16.) Takes place during the spring before TLO. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

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><p><strong>Persuasion<strong>

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><p>He's walking through the woods of Central Park near midnight when he feels it. That familiar buzzing in his ears—the sense that always tells him when someone is about to die. Someone close to him, or a demigod. Nico sighs. It's hard enough <em>hearing<em> about all the deaths so far this summer. Does he really need to _feel_ them happen?

The noise is strangely forceful this time, like a wasp flying right next to his ear. Whoever is dying must be close by, he thinks. He leans his head to the right, and the sound grows stronger. His heartbeat starts speeding up, as the dying person's heartbeat must be slowing down.

He takes a cautious step in the direction the buzzing leads him, and then another, and soon enough he's sprinting, the din almost unbearably loud in his ears—

And then he sees it.

There's a bloodstained, monster-dust-coated shield lying face up at the bottom of a hill. He inches closer, looking around automatically for a body. He doesn't see one.

There are scorch marks all over the hill, he notices. He automatically catalogues the fire-breathing monsters in his head. The Colchis bulls, maybe, or a chimera…

Nico kneels down to observe the faintly glowing celestial bronze, trying to figure out who the person is based on the markings of the shield. Most campers like to have their parent's symbol, or a certain pattern.

This shield is different from the others, more elaborate. Underneath the gore he can see various heroic scenes etched in the metal, and in the middle of the designs is… a trident.

"Oh, gods," he mutters. "Percy."

He straightens up and looks around wildly. The buzzing is still strong in his ears, which means that the son of Poseidon is hopefully alive, for now. _Or he's dead, you optimistic idiot_, the realistic side of him sneers.

The noise grows stronger, more urgent as he runs up the small hill. When he reaches the crest, his breath catches in his throat.

Percy is laying spread-eagled at the foot of the hill, his armor askew and a gaping, steaming, greenish wound across his torso. Blood has soaked through his shirt, and is seeping onto the grass. Nico can almost _see_ him dying.

He lets out a steady stream of curses that would have had all the mothers within a fifty mile radius washing his mouth with soap as he half-falls down the hill. He collapses to his knees next to his fallen friend, begging all the gods who will listen for Percy not to die. His pockets are turned out in a millisecond, and he finds his emergency bottle of nectar too slowly.

Percy's breath is coming in rough, shuddering gasps. His eyes are squeezed tightly shut, and Nico can tell that he's not aware of anything but dying.

"Sorry, Perce," he mutters, unscrewing the cap and starting to pour the heavenly drink over the wound. "This is gonna hurt."

A cloud of greenish steam emits from the horrible cut, and Percy lets out an incoherent groan. _Well_, Nico thinks wryly, _at least he's alive_. The wound starts healing, not as quickly as he'd like, and the buzzing in his ears quiets by the smallest degree. He would need something else to help…

Water.

His gaze falls upon a nearby trashcan, and he sprints over, rifling through its contents (most of which he would prefer remain unknown) until he finds a half-empty water bottle. The one small benefit to not recycling: there's always a plastic bottle at hand.

He rushes back to Percy, who's now unconscious, to find the cut only infinitesimally healed. Once the water touches the wound, though, the small tendrils of liquid begin to knit the skin together. The buzzing is still in his ears; loud, but not as loud as before. Nico hopes that this is a stable enough condition, because he needs a professional healer _fast_.

He hoists Percy's arm up around his shoulders and begins to run towards the nearest tree. He's only shadow-traveled with another person once, and he desperately hopes that he doesn't mess it up this time. He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, he's standing by the front porch of the Big House.

He breathes a brief sigh of relief and stumbles up the wooden steps, his legs feeling as stiff as the boards he's tripping on.

"Chiron!" he yells. "Chiron, wake up!"

He hears a clopping noise, and then the door flies open. The centaur's face is tense and worried, battle-weary.

"What—" His eyes widen as he takes in the sight before him, the great child of the prophecy draped half-dead over the shoulders of the eleven year old outcast son of Hades. "_Di immortales_! Inside, quickly."

The centaur takes Percy's limp form and carries him at a gallop to the infirmary, which is good because Nico feels like he's about to fall asleep, or collapse, or both. He hears Chiron tell whichever Apollo kid is in there to go get more help; he'll start the healing.

He trudges into the room, and suddenly the weight of the situation crashes down upon him. If he hadn't followed the buzzing noise, if Chiron couldn't heal Percy… Percy would die. And he, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, would become the child of the prophecy. A tingle runs up his spine, and in his exhausted state he can't tell exactly why.

"Nico."

He feels Chiron's weathered hand land on his shoulder, and he looks up wearily from the cot he's on. He doesn't even remember sitting down.

"He's going to heal. Most of the venom is out, although I'm still not sure what it was from. Do you know what happened?"

It takes a few seconds for him to process the words. He vaguely notices the buzzing has faded away, like someone turning a radio down to the lowest level. He blinks, and shakes his head.

"I just found him like that—no, worse than that. He was dying. Almost dead. That's how I found him. I felt that someone was dying, and…" He trails off, thinking that if he was normal, he should probably be shuddering at the mere thought of what had happened. The only reason he's more shaken than usual, though, is because it's one of his only friends. Death is a constant part of his life now, and he has two simple options: accept it or go insane.

Chiron is silent for a while, pursing his lips thoughtfully. Nico nearly falls asleep twice, but his head jerks up just before he nods off.

"And you, Nico? How are you?"

He's surprised. He would've expected the centaur to just give him a pat on the back and say that he did a good job saving the Chosen One. Chiron's one of the few people who's ever cared to ask how _he's_ doing, actually.

"Tired," he mumbles. "And grumpy."

Chiron lets out a small, weary chuckle and trots over to a table in the corner of the large room. He comes back with a nasty-looking drink of some kind.

"Take this," he says. "It will help. Just one swallow should do."

Nico does as he's told, and blacks out almost immediately.

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><p>The sound of a horse's hooves and the low murmur of campers' voices wake Nico up way too early. He rolls over to the source of the noise and opens his eyes blearily.<p>

Everything's a little blurry. He sees Chiron standing by Percy's cot, gripping his ever-present bow and talking to a couple of Apollo's kids. Healers. They're not doing anything now, though, and the buzzing is gone from his ears, so he assumes that Percy is okay.

His spine cracks as he slowly sits up, and one of the healers looks at him and says something to Chiron. The centaur smiles and clip-clops over to his bed.

"Did you sleep well?" he asks carefully.

Nico nods. "How's Percy?"

"Better," Chiron sighs. "He's awake. We're extremely lucky that you found him. Otherwise…"

He doesn't need to say it. Otherwise, Percy would be dead. The hero of the Great Prophecy, the best swordsman in a few centuries, the first son of Poseidon since World War II, one of Nico's only friends…

"Can I talk to him for a minute?" he asks suddenly. "Like, privately?"

Chiron gives him a long, searching gaze before nodding. "Of course. Just a moment."

He turns to the Apollo kids still huddled by the other bed and tells them to head down to lunch. Nico should be surprised that it's already past noon, but his sleeping schedule is already so skewed from spending half his time in the Underworld that it doesn't really faze him.

When Chiron leaves, closing the door softly behind him, he stands up shakily and walks over to Percy. He stares down at him for a minute.

"Jeez, Perce," he says. "You look awful."

He's not lying. The son of Poseidon is a lot paler than usual, with dark purple circles under his eyes. The wound is wrapped in layers upon layers of bandages. He notices that Percy's breathing is shallow; he's trying not to stretch the cut.

Percy lets out a weak-sounding chuckle. "Yeah, I've been told." He slowly sits up so that he's leaning against the metal bed frame, wincing with the movement.

"So, what were you fighting?"

"A drakon," he says with a grimace. "I was tracking and fighting it for almost a day before I killed it. It got me first, as you could probably tell."

"Do you know which one?"

"Nope. I was more focused on not dying." He smiles ruefully.

"Well, that didn't work very well, did it? You were dying when I found you, Percy. If I hadn't you'd be dead." Percy purses his lips, looking thoughtful, and Nico shakes his head slowly. "It would be so much _easier_ if you just went through with my plan."

"Oh gods, not now, Nico," he groans, throwing his head back against the wall.

"I'm serious, Percy! If you just do what I suggested, you'll never have to worry about things like this happening again. You'll be able to take on ten drakons at once and come out without a scratch. You'll be _invincible_." His voice slips to an almost reverent whisper at the last part.

"Nico, it's still way too risky. If you're right, only two people have done it successfully. Everyone else died, right?"

"But _you're_ strong enough! You're a hundred times braver than those other guys. Besides, I'm right about what I said, so the only way you can even hope to beat Kronos is by doing this."

"Nico…"

"Unless you want Kronos to destroy Olympus, and the gods to fall, and all your friends to die…"

Percy squeezes his eyes shut, as if he's trying to block out a sudden horrible thought. Nico feels guilty for threatening him like that, but Percy's nothing if not loyal.

"It's our only hope, Perce. You're only one who can defeat him… and you don't stand a chance without this. You don't have to do it right now. Once you've recovered, maybe…" He keeps up a steady stream of persuasive words, hoping that he'll finally convince Percy. He crosses his fingers and holds his breath in anticipation.

Percy sighs and hits his head back against the bed frame, keeping his eyes closed.

"Fine. As long as we don't tell anyone before we go, I'll do it. Not yet, though. I… I need time." He opens his eyes and glances up at the son of Hades, who's grinning.

_Finally_.

"Before the war gets into full swing, though. Swear on the Styx?" Nico asks. He doesn't really think that Percy will back out at this point, but better to get him to promise now, while he's relenting.

"Yeah. I swear on the River Styx that I'll take on the curse of Achilles before the climax of the war. Okay?"

He ignores the slightly irritated tone of Percy's voice and smiles. "Perfect."

The sound of hooves comes from the hallway.

"That'll be Chiron. I should go. See you soon, Percy." He gives the son of Poseidon a meaningful, _don't-you-dare-forget-this_ look and starts to walk towards the door.

"Hey, Nico?"

He turns to see Percy smiling just a bit.

"Thanks. For saving me, I mean."

Nico's grin widens. "Anytime."

He walks out of the infirmary and nearly collides with Chiron.

"Leaving so soon, Nico?"

"Yeah," he says with a shrug. "I've got stuff to do in the Underworld."

Chiron nods sagely. "Just remember, you always have a place at Camp Half Blood." It's not completely true, and both of them know it, but the thought's nice, at least. And Chiron seems like he actually means it.

Judging from the centaur's expression, he heard the last part of his and Percy's conversation. His eyebrows are slightly raised, and his mouth is in a tight, disapproving line, but he doesn't say anything. By this point, he's probably resigned himself to the fact that demigods do reckless, hopeless things behind the backs of authority figures.

Nico thanks Chiron and says goodbye quickly, his face breaking into another huge grin as he strides toward the camp borders.

Who would've ever thought something so great would come out of Percy almost dying?


End file.
